During an appearance on Chris Matthews’ Hardball on Thursday night, Kellyanne Conway, Donald Trump’s former campaign manager and now an adviser in his administration, referenced a “massacre” when justifying the President’s ban on refugees and immigrants from seven majority-Muslim countries.
“I bet it’s brand new information to people that President Obama had a six-month ban on the Iraqi refugee program after two Iraqis came here to this country, were radicalized and they were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre,” Conway said during an exchange on the program. “Most people don’t know that because it didn’t get covered.”
The media didn’t cover the Bowling Green Massacre because no such event ever happened.
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Friday morning, Conway said on Twitter that she had “meant to say ‘Bowling Green terrorists.’”
She was referring to an incident in 2011 in which two Iraqi nationals were indicted for allegedly having ties to IED (Improvised Explosive Device) attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq.
According to a 2013 release from the Department of Justice pertaining to their sentencing for terrorist activities, “Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, 25, a former resident of Iraq, was sentenced to life in federal prison, and Waad Ramadan Alwan, 31, a former resident of Iraq, was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison.” The two men lived in Bowling Green, Kentucky and according to the release “admitted using improvised explosive devices (IEDs) against U.S. soldiers in Iraq and who attempted to send weapons and money to Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) for the purpose of killing U.S. soldiers.”
There is no information about the men having committed violent offenses in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Conway’s reference to a “ban” from Obama likely alludes to a review of vetting procedures for individuals coming from Iraq which did occur in 2011 as a result of the Bowling Green arrests.
The Daily Beast had reached out to Conway on Thursday night to determine what exactly she was referencing here, or whether it was another set of “alternative facts.” We will update as we hear more.
